The present invention relates to chemical manufacturing systems and, more particularly, to a chemical manufacturing system involving a gas, gases, or liquid which is turned into a gas, reacting with a solid or liquid, inside a closed reactor system.
Chemical reactions are often initially worked out on a small, bench-top scale. At this scale, it can be relatively easy to work with a variety of materials, including highly reactive materials as reagents or products. For example, many highly reactive materials may react exothermically and often, it is desirable to maintain the reaction at a given temperature or within a predetermined temperature range. This can be performed by controlling the quantity of material flowing into a reaction vessel, for example. In some situations, a highly reactive material may be produced and its collection controlled and contained.
When the bench scale is scaled up to a pilot plant or manufacturing scale, often involving hundreds of kilograms of product, highly reactive substances can be more difficult to handle and control. For example, as reactions are scaled up, the reaction volumes (number of moles of reagent reacted over a given time) are often similarly increased, often resulting in increased exotherm that can become difficult to control to keep the reaction temperature within a desired reaction temperature range.
Moreover, with conventional reactor systems, the systems are often designed in an integrated fashion, where, should one component need changing or replacement, it could result in the need for replacing the entire reactor. Without a modular design, it can be a labor-intensive and time-consuming task to repair these conventional reactor systems.
As can be seen, there is a need for an improved chemical manufacturing system that can help overcome shortcomings of conventional chemical reactor systems.